Eagles fans face delays in getting home on SEPTA

After the Eagles parade was over, lines quickly formed outside 30th Street Station for Regional Rail service.
Frank Burgos/For PhillyVoice

Hundreds of thousands of fans leaving the city on public transit after watching the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl parade can expect delays as they head for home.

Outbound service on the 11 lines in service on SEPTA's Regional Rail on Thursday began around 2 p.m.


RELATED: Live from Eagles parade: Chaos at Center City bar


After the parade ended, huge numbers of riders were being assigned to queues corresponding to their Regional Rail, which led to some confusion, according to Philly.com. Trains were set to run on intervals of every half-hour or hour, depending on the line.

Some riders tweeted that they had been waiting in line outside for as long as two hours.


A tweet from another rider claimed that things apparently got testy on one Trenton line train.

"The Eagles' post-parade has officially devolved – fight breaks out on Septa train to Trenton. One dude has black eye and there are no more "Fly Eagles Fly" chants," wrote the user, who goes by the Twitter handle @CRedRojo.


Some riders applauded SEPTA for their preparations ahead of parade day and for their work coordinating service and controlling the crowds, while others gave feedback for next time.



The last Regional Rail trains will move out of Center City around 9:30 p.m., excluding the Airport line, which will operate hourly between Philadelphia International Airport and 30th Street Station for the rest of the service day.

On the subways, service to all stops on the Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines will resume at 7 p.m., but rides will remain free for the rest of the day, SEPTA said.

SEPTA had closed a number of subway stops in anticipation of the festivities to streamline transit for paradegoers.


SEPTA announced around 3:30 p.m. Thursday that it had shut down the stop at Cecil B. Moore Avenue along the Broad Street Line. Instead, the transportation authority recommended riders use the Girard Avenue or North Philadelphia stations as alternatives.

Trains began resuming service to the station around 5 p.m.

SEPTA kept open 13th Street Station on the Market-Frankford Line, but they encouraged paradegoers to avoid using the congested stop if they could help it.

SEPTA also said some westbound trains will skip 8th Street Station to help prevent congestion there.

The Walnut-Locust stop on the Broad Street line was closed because of overcrowding around 10 a.m., but reopened around 1 p.m.

On the trolleys, service will resume to all stops around 7 p.m.

Twenty-seven buses were also detoured for the parade.

See more information on SEPTA's service for parade day here.

PATCO

Eastbound service on PATCO resumed on a modified schedule early Thursday afternoon after it had been only running westbound service in the morning. Westbound service ran on a modified schedule on Thursday afternoon.

Service in both directions will be back on a normal schedule by Thursday night. Expect normal service to return by 7:30 p.m. on westbound trains and 8:09 p.m. for eastbound trains.